credulity of their
progenitors, by spitting on the first money received by them in the
morning, and preferring to deal first with persons reputed to have
good luck. Athletes (particularly boxers and wrestlers) spit into
their loofs before commencing a combat, thinking that by so doing they
are more likely to prevail.

At wedding-parties, baptisms, and funerals we have seen numerous forms
of superstition displayed. First, the bride's dress must consist of
certain fabrics, while the flowers with which her person is adorned
must not include hated sprigs, repellers of love, or such as attract
evil spirits. All know the custom, if not the value, of throwing
slippers, rice, etc. after a newly-wedded pair; and the ceremony of
breaking a cake over a bride's head as she first enters her husband's
house is not forgotten. Who has not eaten the "child's cheese," and
been forbidden to depart from the infantile home before drinking the
young one's health, on every occasion the nursery was entered before
the christening. Maidens dream, as often as they have the chance, on
"children's cheese" and brides' cakes, in order to obtain glimpses in
their slumbers of future love and matrimony.

Tea in abundance has been infused to supply the necessary material for
the spae-wife to read her cups. Coins and jewellery, deposited with the
fortune-teller to enable him or her to discover the fortune of the
owners, have too often failed to be restored to the lawful owners.
Servant-girls can tell how often they and their employers have been
plundered by fortune-tellers in the guise of beggars and pedlars.

May-dew has not lost its virtue; the carrying of fire round houses,
fields, and boats are still supposed to drive away witches and evil
spirits; and diseases are supposed to be capable of cure by means of
charms.

Superstitious families are less terrified at thunder and lightning
than at the ticking of the death-watch (_anobium tesselatum_), whose
noise is supposed to prognosticate an early death in the household.
With little less fear are the crowing of cocks, the lowing of cattle,
and the howling of dogs at night listened to. The passing of a
sharp-edged or pointed instrument from one lover to another is
continued to be looked upon with anything but favour, as such
articles, even pins, divide affection. If an angler step over his
fishing-rod, he will have indifferent piscatory sport. It is a good
sign for swallows to build their nests at one